Identifying where the real potential for digital transformation lies (in terms of risk, process and the bottom-line) will be a key challenge to meet in 2018 for all organizations. Read on to discover where Athena, our robot, thinks these spaces for change are occurring and take action accordingly, or ask us for help in making sense of digital futures and your role in it.

Do contact us to see how we can help you track emerging cybersecurity issues and developments as they are announced or reported.

Systems map

The systems map below reflects that digital transformation is just beginning and will transform everyone’s lives, habits and behaviors in the future, whether they know it or not.

Sentiment analysis
Sentiment has generally been positive towards digital transformation in recent years but we are now seeing more negative sentiments such as fear of being hacked, lack of privacy and losing one’s job. Organizations will need to do more not to lose their consumers and staff at this time of momentous change. The possibility of a backlash and reaction against change lurks behind below the surface in this sentiment chart.

Pie charts
Athena thinks the tipping point for digital transformation (when one third of the public accepts the new digital reality as the norm) is still thirteen years ago. That reflects the massive technological changes we will likely see in many sectors over the next decade and beyond. The monetary gain is expected to be huge but ~60% of the change is still only in early stage development and so the gain may be substantially under-estimated by the markets.

Cloud
Athena’s cloud analysis highlights a fundamental shift emerging in organizational structures, processes and automation towards more self-serve, virtual organizations and less business infrastructure. With so much uncertainty arising from these changes organizations need to become more agile, responsive and constantly foresightful. We can help you th that. Do contact us for a free discussion and demonstration of our AI-driven strategic thinking systems.

Radar
We find this Radar chart most interesting because it highlights governments as most at risk from and with the most opportunity in joining the digital transformation. Siloed governments and organizations need to restructure around joined up systems and networks or they will quickly face public dissatisfaction, who will know from experience elsewhere that they are being badly served.

Graph-It
The two biggest drivers of digital change in the next five years are Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing. AI has been around for many years but is now emerging as powerful tool to do more with less. Indeed, at Shaping Tomorrow, Athena now does most of the work and we are intent on getting her to do all the drudgery work, while we spend our time only on developing her.

If you are not investing in AI, you will be seriously falling behind. We recommend you begin searching Athena’s AI database to see how you can join and get ahead of your rivals.

Heat Map
The heat map highlights which sectors and topics show the most promise for investment e.g. financial services, support services, business models, healthcare, power and robotics.

Year over Year
According to Athena there has been no overall change in sector intensity from last year which remains at a Very High level. But there have been some significant sectoral moves as digital transformation becomes an imperative for most.

Geographies
Digital transformation is not yet a global phenomenon as mobile phones have become but it will eventually become so. Right now, the transformation is being led by the USA, the UK, Germany, India, Australia and China.

Influencers
The chart below shows the top five areas of change likely to come in these countries positively affecting their technological capabilities and hence their economies and growth with substantive improvements in energy efficiency and data use. Other countries need to join this bandwagon or become a client of these countries or be left behind.

Sources
Athena used the sources below as the top ones to create this report and determined which embedded forecasts are included in this Trend Alert. She found 718 forecasts in seconds on the 7th September 2018 to allow us to publish this summary in less than an hour. She can turn these into PowerPoint slides and Audio files in minutes too as you wish, or we can prepare a full customized and professionally written brief for you to order covering all 718 forecasts. You can also use these forecasts in collaborative workshops to develop your strategic responses in hours rather than the weeks and months of traditional foresight projects.

Athena

Athena does show duplicates to aid your understanding of themes as well as contradictory forecasts. She may also show near-duplicates. You can speed read past the duplicates and near-duplicates if you wish, though the latter may show additional information. You can use the contradictory, and likely uncertain forecasts she finds to imagine different scenarios. The future is unpredictable, but we can examine the possibilities and choose our preferable future from the choices she presents.
Athena is apolitical. She will report forecasts from different viewpoints however distasteful that might be to our own values. Wearing rose-colored glasses is not her purpose; reporting potential futures is. So, we recommend you check her veracity before responding to her extracted forecasts.

Just like humans, Athena can be fallible. Do recognize that you and your associates are biased too. But whereas you tire, make mistakes and only recognize what interests you, she does not. She might miss or misinterpret as you do, but with far less frequency and she'll take uncomfortable truths and alternative ideas in her stride. But, please let us know if you feel her bias can be reduced. We want to do our best for you. And, as with any research, you should check and triangulate her findings for yourself.

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